Cultural Studies YR1 Lecture 1

Cultural Studies Lecture 1: 

Cultural Studies Lecture 1

Culture: 

Culture Defining the indefinable ‘one of the 2 or 3 most complicated words in the English language’ Raymond Williams (Keywords) At the last count there were over 160 different definitions of the concept of ‘culture’

A working definition: 

A working definition "By culture we mean all those historically created designs for living, explicit and implicit, rational, irrational, and non-rational, which exist at any given time as potential guides for the behaviour of men." Kluckhohn, C., & Kelly, W.H. (1945). The concept of culture. In R. Linton (Ed.). The Science of Man in the World Culture. New York. (pp. 78-105).

Or, more succinctly…: 

Or, more succinctly… "Culture has been defined in a number of ways, but most simply, as the learned and shared behavior of a community of interacting human beings" (p. 169). Useem, J., & Useem, R. (1963). Human Organizations, 22(3).

Raymond Williams: 

Raymond Williams General process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development A particular way of life of a people a period or a group The works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity

‘Culture’ & ‘Cultural Studies’: 

‘Culture’ & ‘Cultural Studies’ Aesthetics Anthropology Critical Theory

Culture & Ideology: 

Culture & Ideology An image or representation of the world articulated from a particular point of view Set of ideas articulated by particular groups Masking or distorting view of reality (Marx) A set of inter-related ideas and practices that bind us to the social order (Althusser) Connotation or ‘myth’ (Barthes)

Culture & ‘civilisation’: 

Culture & ‘civilisation’ Discussions of culture traditionally dominated by a series of dichotomies of intention and understanding Tension between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Distinction between ‘high’ and ‘popular’ Cultural relativism and the ‘defence of standards’

Culture and Anarchy Matthew Arnold (1867): 

Culture and Anarchy Matthew Arnold (1867)

Culture and Anarchy : 

Culture and Anarchy ‘the best that has been thought and said in the world’ ‘a study of perfection..that consists in becoming rather than having’ Obtained by reading, observing and thinking To ‘minister to the diseased spirit of our time’ Culture as ‘the seeking of culture’

Culture as social control: 

Culture as social control Popular culture as anarchy Social function of culture to ‘police’ the activities of the industrial working class The function of culture is to remove popular culture and subordinate the lower orders To imbue deference and ‘civilize’ the populace

FR LeavisThe Great Tradition: 

FR Leavis The Great Tradition

Leavisism and cultural crisis: 

Leavisism and cultural crisis 20th Century fears of cultural decline through ‘mass’ culture Training the citizen to discriminate and resist the levelling down of culture Culture as a ‘minority keeping’ Popular cultural forms (e.g. Radio, Advertising, Cinema) diminishing the ‘authority of culture’ Return to the ‘golden age’ of cultural coherence and the ‘containment of mass culture’.

Whose Culture?: 

Whose Culture? To me it is very powerful and spiritual. She is contemplating. She is looking at something. That is what moved hundreds of thousands of people who bought the reproduction and hung it over the fireplace. It is unique. Uri Geller

Whose culture?: 

Whose culture?

Whose Culture?: 

Whose Culture?

Suggestions for Further Reading: 

Suggestions for Further Reading Johnson R (1986) What is cultural studies anyway Social Text 6 38-80 Williams R (1983) Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society London: Fontana